Sending summer Born Kids to School A Year Later?

[mumtochloe]

Can anyone help me with my dilemma?

DD was born on the 28th August and will therefore be the youngest in her school year. She has been to an open day at the school she is supposed to be going to in September but all the kids seemed a lot bigger and more advanced than her and I am worried she will be at a disadvantage if she goes this year.

Has anyone sent thier kids to school a year later? Do you think this will be better for her or worse in relation to socialising etc? Can anyone give me some advice on this as the application pack needs to be in soon and I am panicking a bit!

Thank you

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Lack of male role models can be such a problem. I had a male sixth form mentor work with me last year with a very difficult Y8 class. It had the best effect you could imagine on the boys in particular. Don't have a sixthformer this year, mores the pitty.

Yorkiegirl, does your school hold open places for parents who want to delay entry slightly? Do they still get 'full funding' for a child who has a few afternoons off every week?

Our school is oversubscribed, and have always said there is no option apart from full-time from the September when they are 4, or they will lose their place. Is this correct? If they did hold a place for an August birthday for a year (for that child to skip reception and go straight into yr1), would they lose out on £XXXX funding?

Sorry - I addressed my queries to Yorkiegirl, but am of course happy to hear from anyone.

I agree completely about positive role models. Our primary school has 5 male class teachers (out of 14), and the Head is a woman So apart from reception most children have a male teacher every other year.

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I had no idea it worked that way in the UK. I was brought up in Ireland and children just started when they were ready (within limits) and were sometimes moved up or down in the first few years if necessary so there was a much wider range of ages in each year.

Does this apply to private schools as well as state schools?

We did accept a Reception place for ds for September 2002 but had to defer it because we were staying out of the country longer than anticipated. Because he potentially wouldn't have started until the following September, so outside the 2002-3 academic year, they were not obliged to hold his place open, although at the time they thought it likely there would be one (natural turn over I suppose)if we phoned early enough. I believe that if he had still be able to enter the school at, say, Easter 2003 they would have had to hold the place for him because we had already accepted their offer.

Like roisin's, our school is very oversubscribed, and children are expected to go full-time (ie. 9am to 3.20pm) from the beginning of nursery (aged3.5!).

Some children with late August birthdays have been kept back in terms of not going to the nursery class, or doing just one term, but they've all started reception at the age-appropriate time, ie. the January after their fourth birthday, and full days from the start. The school is unreceptive even to people asking for half days, never mind asking for delayed entry to Year 1. That's the downside of going for a popular school -- if you start asking for special considerations, they can always play the "If you don't like what we offer, you're welcome to go elsewhere" card.

But all of these very young-for-year children have done fine, in fact, and much better than the older kids in the class who don't come from supportive families.

mumtochloe, FWIW, my ds started reception class this September, he too is a summer birthday and is one of four with birthdays within a few days of each other. I too had the same worries that you are having, particularly as my ds is small, fairly quiet and took ages to settle in at preschool but really they do settle in fine - in fact the only two that are still crying when their carer leaves them are 5 and nearly 5. Obviously my ds may be behind some academically, but it's early days and all that really matters is that he's happy to go and seems to enjoy school. I will not enter into the whole "competition for brightest child of the year"
You should apply for the place anyway, you can always turn it down if you decide not to send her.
BTW does she go to a nursery/playgroup now, where her friends will automatically move up to school also? The reason I ask this, is that a friend's ds with a September birthday and who used to play with my ds plus other friends is now finding it tough at preschool without them.
HTH

sorry... another point

could she start mornings only for a term?
our school was happy for our children to do this (although no one has tbh)